Up early today (early for me, at least, for a Saturday) to go with son's girlfriend to pick up her wedding dress. She is going to be such a beautiful bride! She was so excited she couldn't eat breakfast - imagine what she'll be like when the day finally arrives. And her dress won't be home with her for too long; it's going to need alterations which will take a couple of months apparently, so will be going back to the shop after Christmas.

Once home I had another attempt at fixing my vacuum cleaner which hasn't worked properly for over a month. I've lost count of the number of times I've taken it apart and cleaned filters etc, changed the hose in case that was the culprit (Ziggy had handily perforated it for me)and checked all the seals. The only thing I hadn't done was check the little bit of pipe leading from the hose to the machine itself - and there was a toy mouse, wedged inside. A couple of minutes with a screwdriver and it was good as new! Just as well, too; it's a Dyson, which I bought for the pet hair (can you say "longhaired white cats" anyone?) So, nice clean carpets again!

Up until mid afternoon it was hot and humid, owing to the recent rain, and then the clouds rolled in, and not only did we have an afternoon storm (so much for my rain-after-nightfall!) but we had hail as well! And my Mitsi was sitting in the driveway, because my new car was undercover in the carport. So there I was in the pouring rain, throwing a quilt over the roof of the Mitsi and a blanket over the boot. I hope it's okay; time enough tomorrow to check.

Firstly the rain and hail came from the south, and it was quite ferocious too. After about 20 minutes it started to ease, only to swing around and come from the opposite direction.

Here's a vid I shot, showing the downpour - you can see the water cascading over the gutters which just couldn't cope, as well as the hail on my front lawn. And it really was that loud. The larger pieces of hail sounded like gunshots.